Star Film Company
A Trip to the Moon is arguably one of the most famous and influential films ever made even to this day. Quite an accomplishment for something that was originally released in 1902. But more than a century later, the film miraculously survives — truly incredible considering 75% or more of the films from the silent era no longer exist — and has been painstakingly restored for a new Blu-ray release courtesy of Flicker Alley.
A Trip to the Moon was created and filmed by pioneering French filmmaker and magician Georges Méliès. Méliès was quite taken with the then new process of film projection after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière Brothers work. At that time, films were limited to about a minute running time and consisted of mundane, every day subjects but the idea of moving pictures was intriguing to Méliès. Taking up the process himself, he accidentally discovered what could be accomplished with film when his camera jammed. After getting it started again and then seeing the processed film, he basically created the first special effect when an object transformed into another object where the jam occured. He then realized he could apply this effect to his magic act, allowing objects and people to appear and disappear. He also came up with a double exposure process that allowed him to combine several images onto one piece of film.
Being a true showman, Méliès constructed a studio which resembled a greenhouse with frosted glass walls and roof to allow as much light in as possible (shooting could only take place between 11 AM and 4 PM) and began to put all of his skills to the test with short, extravagant films like Cinderella and The Astronomer’s Dream. The turn of the century also saw a boom in fantasical novels by authors like Jules Verne, and Verne’s own ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ and ‘Around the Moon’ inspired Méliès to bring those words to life on film, the result of which was Le voyage dans la lune. Méliès spent three months and an unheard of 10,000 francs to produce the 15 minute film which featured a scientist, Prof. Barbenfouillis (Méliès), presenting his idea of a large cannon that could launch a capsule to the moon. There was some disagreement if this could be done or not, but the Professor won out and selected five others to join him in his voyage (which resulted in the most famous image in film history of the capsule lodged in the eye of the moon). On the moon they encounter strange plant life and creatures called Selenites, quickly return to earth and are honored for their work. Interestingly, Méliès presented the idea of the capsule splashing down in the ocean long before NASA did it … or even existed.
Star Film Company
While A Trip to the Moon was filmed in black and white, Méliès employed a local colorist to painstakingly hand color each of the more than 13,000 frames of the film. This version of the film had been thought lost for decades (and at one point Méliès burned the bulk of his filmic output). While the black and white version resurfaced in 1930, it wasn’t until 1993 that a hand-colored version of the film was discovered. It was subjected to a painstaking restoration process in 2011, and is now available again as Méliès intended on Flicker Alley’s Blu-ray release, and it is something to behold if you’ve ever only seen the black and white version. The film’s condition — it was actually stuck together — demanded extra special care, and where frames were damaged beyond repair, they were replaced with frames from the black and white edition which were then colored to match the original film. A great amount of work has gone into preserving this monumental piece of film history.
The Blu-ray presents A Trip to the Moon in the best version possible, and while it may not be as pristine as modern viewers would expect, it is complete and definitely worth a look.
The Blu-ray features the hand-colored version with two new musical soundtracks and a third with narration from a script written by Méliès himself. For my tastes, I wasn’t too fond of the modern sounding music, although the second score reminded me of the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis with its electronic disco beat. I did appreciate the narration which provided a little more detail about what was happening on screen as the film has no intertitle cards (or opening and closing credits, something that came later in film presentation).
The Blu-ray also includes the black and white version of the film with more traditional sounding silent movie scores as well as a track with actors providing voices for the actors on screen. It’s an interesting concept, and I appreciate all the different options provided for viewing the film. Had they also included the traditional soundtracks with the hand-colored version, this release would have been a complete home run. Other extras on the Blu-ray include:
- The Astronomer’s Dream (3:22) – A fantastical short from 1898 that includes many elements Méliès would incorporate into A Trip to the Moon
- The Eclipes: The Courtship of the Sun and Moon (9:41) – A fairy tale or fable about the foolishness of looking too deeply into the workings of an unstable and inscrutable universe.
- The Extraordinary Voyage (66:11) – A documentary detailing the work of Méliès, the production of the film, and the painstaking efforts to restore and preserve the hand-colored version. The doc features commentary from well-known directors Costa-Gavras, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Michel Gondry, with archival footage of Tom Hanks during production of an episode of HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon which re-created the production of A Trip to Moon and juxtaposed that with the last Apollo mission. An very in-depth and informative documentary.
Flicker Alley’s new Blu-ray release (it also comes packaged with a DVD) of A Trip to the Moon is a must have for any film buff or film student or anyone who just appreciates movies and film history. We don’t often get to see a movie that is more than one hundred years old and A Trip to the Moon is a treasure that belongs in any film library.
Flicker Alley generously provided Hotchka with a Blu-ray versions of the film for reviewing purposes.
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